


be mine, be my valentine

by bettycooopers



Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: F/M, Fluff, barchievalentines21, five times barchie were valentines
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-17
Updated: 2021-02-17
Packaged: 2021-03-12 07:41:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,382
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29506386
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bettycooopers/pseuds/bettycooopers
Summary: Five times Archie and Betty were each other's valentine.
Relationships: Archie Andrews/Betty Cooper
Comments: 7
Kudos: 84





	be mine, be my valentine

**Author's Note:**

> happy belated valentines day! here is some fluffy barchie through the years.
> 
> thank u kindly to [becca](https://archiveofourown.org/users/packedyoursaturday), who made sure i added in some bowling for you all. 🏆

Archie leaves Betty a valentine in the cardboard box she has decorated with little foam pink hearts and glitter glue. It’s beautiful – he knows so because Miss Applebaum, their first grade teacher, had clapped her hands and said so when Betty had put the box on her desk Monday morning.

...Okay, fine, he has to leave  _ everyone  _ a valentine – class rules – but he taped an extra heart-shaped lollipop to Betty’s before school this morning and he listens as it drops to the bottom of the little box with a bit more of a  _ thwonk  _ than the other valentines he’s passed out proudly. It’s heavier, which he thinks means it’s probably better. Hopefully it’s the best valentine in her whole box.

The thing is, though, a valentine he’d written himself (okay, his mom had helped a little) with an extra lollipop doesn’t really feel like enough...not for Betty, at least – she’s supposed to be his  _ real  _ valentine, and that (at least, he thinks) is a big deal. She’d explained it out by the monkey bars the other day, her legs swinging as she’d sat on the top rung of the ladder while Archie had strained to reach for the bars on the other side, stretching his arm out and standing on his tiptoes. He swore it was harder to reach out and grab the first rung during the winter – the jackets and gloves made it more difficult. Reggie had said it was because Archie was too short, but Betty had kicked dirt on his shoes and told Archie she thought it was harder in the winter too.

“Valentine’s Day is all about love,” Betty had said, and Archie had nodded to make sure she knew he was listening. “It’s a whole holiday that’s just for telling people you love them...and when someone is _your_ valentine, it’s really special…’cause that’s just showing the _whole_ world that you love them.”

“Uh huh,” Archie had said, reaching his arm out further and nearly slipping off the ladder. 

“Archie, be careful,” she’d laughed, shaking her head. “You can’t be my valentine if you hurt yourself.”

“I can’t?” Archie had managed to jump up to the first monkey bar and swung a bit, pulling his knees up to his chest. “Why not?”

“‘Cause,” Betty had shrugged, smiling. “I don’t want you to get hurt.” Archie had sighed – kind of a fake one, though – and dropped from the monkey bars, walking over to the side Betty was sitting on. He’d pulled lightly on one of her pigtails and she had laughed, shoving his hand away with a smile. “Okay, fine, you can be my valentine.”

Archie had been about to ask her if she’d be his – wasn’t  _ he  _ supposed to ask  _ her,  _ anyways? – when the whistle had blown to signal the end of recess and Betty had grabbed his hand to pull him back towards the building. 

Still, though, just  _ giving Betty Cooper a valentine  _ doesn’t feel like enough – he’s her valentine, she’d said so...he thinks he needs to do something more. On the way home from school, he listens to Betty going on and on about all the heart-shaped candy she’s hidden in the pockets of her backpack so her mother won’t be able to take it away and feels himself frowning. Betty seems to notice it, too, because she looks over and grabs his hand. “Archie,” she laughs, a soft smile on her lips when he looks up at her. “I’ll  _ share  _ the candy, if you want.”

Archie laughs, shaking his head. “No, no,” he swings their hands a little, shrugging. “I just wanted you to have a special Valentine’s Day, that’s all.”

“I did,” Betty says, her voice quiet. She stops walking and turns to face him, so Archie faces her, too. “Is that what’s been bugging you all day?” Archie nods, looking down at their shoes. He can see the grass finally peeking out from beneath the frozen layer of snow on the ground. “Archie, you were my  _ valentine,  _ ‘course it was special.” 

Archie looks up, his eyes wide. “It was?”

Betty nods. “The most special,” she smiles, then leans over and kisses him quickly on the cheek before tugging on his gloved hand. “Now come on, we have to go find somewhere to hide all my candy.”

–

Betty knocks on Archie’s door early on Valentine’s Day in eighth grade. He doesn’t expect her – his dad is already at work and he’d planned on sleeping for the bulk of the day. It wasn’t that he wasn’t looking to avoid the holiday, or anything...but he isn’t exactly interested in celebrating  _ love,  _ or anything. His mom had called early to wish him a happy Valentine’s, and Archie had dragged himself back up to bed as soon as they’d hung up, wanting to erase the entirety of the conversation from his brain.

Betty, apparently, doesn’t care for his plan. Archie shuffles down the stairs and frowns at her when he pulls the door open. “Hey,” he says, his voice full of sleep. “What’s up?”

“Get dressed,” Betty crosses her arms over her chest. “We’re going out.”

“Betts,” he drags his hand through his hair, looking over his shoulder. “I’m sleeping.”

Betty rolls her eyes, reaching across the threshold and shoving his shoulder. “No, you’re not. Go get dressed, I’ll wait here.”

Archie sighs. Betty’s face is determined – he knows he’s not getting back to bed any time soon. He takes a step back and pushes the door open further. “You can,” he chuckles, “wait inside, Betts.”

Betty smiles at him, smug, and steps inside. She makes her way into the kitchen, setting down a reusable shopping bag and pulling out a takeout bag from Pop’s. “Do you guys have a lunch bag or something, somewhere?” 

He helps Betty root around the kitchen and leaves her with an insulated lunch bag to get dressed. Betty is waiting for him at the bottom of the stairs, the bulky handle of the lunch bag hanging out of the top of her purse. 

Archie zips his jacket as he gets to the bottom of the stairs, frowning over at her. “Okay,” he mumbles, his frown evening out slightly as she smiles up at him, “where is it you’re dragging me?”

Betty loops her arm through Archie’s and pulls him through the front door, shaking her head. “Surprise,” she shrugs, and then turns straight ahead. 

The walk isn’t long – and it’s not all that cold, this morning, thankfully, so he doesn’t mind. They’re approaching the strip mall with the bowling alley on the edge of their neighborhood when he realizes where they’re going, and he squints over at her. “Really?” Betty ignores him. “You’re taking me  _ bowling? _ ”

Betty rolls her eyes, tugging him towards the entrance. They’d bowled a lot in elementary school – partially because they were both good at it, partially because there wasn’t much else to  _ do  _ on a rainy weekend in Riverdale. Archie follows her through the swinging doors, warm air smacking him in the face as he makes his way into the neon carpeted alley. Betty leads them over to the shoe rental booth, slipping off one of her sneakers and handing it to the clerk, asking for both shoes in hers and Archie’s sizes. Archie, who’s ducked down to the ground to untie his shoe, glances up at her. “How do you know that those’re going to fit?”

Betty frowns at him, holding out her hand for his sneaker. “I  _ know _ your shoe size, Arch,” she shrugs.

They get their shoes and are assigned a lane, Betty finicking with the monitor and putting their names into the machine – he glances up and smiles when it reads “Betts” and “Arch”, a little animated bowling ball flashing in the corner. 

They play in comfortable silence, and Betty hands him a foil wrapped burger from the lunch bag in her purse before she goes up to bowl her sixth frame. He unwraps it and takes a bite, chewing as she knocks down half her pins and then frowns at him over her shoulder. “You’re jinxing me from back there, Andrews.” 

Archie sticks his tongue out at her (he makes sure to swallow his food first) and shrugs. “Maybe you just got bad, Betts.”

Betty frowns, then bowls a spare to prove him wrong.

They play their way through two games (Betty wins both, and even though Archie claims he let her, they both know she won on her own) before they take a break. Betty unwraps her own burger as she looks over at him, “Your mom call this morning?”

Archie nods, keeping his eyes down. He’d mentioned she probably would, yesterday at school. “She says hi,” he offers, and Betty smiles. “She’s doing some kind of singles thing, later.”

Betty wrinkles her nose. “Ew,” she mumbles, taking a bite of her burger. She chews thoughtfully and then looks up at him. “Your dad...have anything going on?” Archie shrugs. “Well, if you want, you can come over. My parents are away this weekend.”

Archie looks up at her, a soft smile on his face. “Thanks, Betty.” She nods. “We could just stay here, a while, too.”

Betty taps her bowling shoe clad foot against his, rolling her eyes teasingly at him when he pretends like it hurts. She speaks with her mouth full, “Well, yeah...that’s the plan, Arch.”

–

Valentine’s Day falls on a Saturday, senior year, which is nice – other than the fact that Veronica winds up going into the city and missing it altogether, and his mom is back in Chicago for the weekend, leaving him on his own. It’s fine, to him – he doesn’t need a whole day to celebrate love. Besides, he’s not really feeling _into_ it this year...he’s not feeling into _much,_ this year. He doesn’t blame himself, per se, but he does kind of feel bad.

Veronica will have more fun visiting Katy, though, anyway. 

He’s milling around the house in gym shorts, his hands still wrapped from his workout with his punching bag earlier, when he hears the back door creaking open and spots Betty stepping through the threshold. He frowns, swallowing and watching as she makes her way into the kitchen, setting down a saran wrapped plate on the counter and then unzipping her jacket. “You’re moping,” she supplies, once Archie walks into the kitchen to investigate the plate, not saying anything. 

“Moping?” He lifts the saran on the plate and smiles down at the cookies, clearly fresh, stacked up in little cylindrical piles. “I’m not moping, Betty...I have  _ cookies.” _

Betty rolls her eyes, pulling the clear wrap off the plate entirely and swatting his hand away. “No cookies until you stop moping,” she laughs, poking him in the chest lightly. He looks down at his bare chest, her fingers pressed against it. 

“Too late,” he mumbles, grabbing one of the cookies and popping the whole thing into his mouth. He chews smugly, grinning at Betty as she frowns up at him. She rolls her eyes and sighs, pulling her hand away and heading over to the cabinets, grabbing two glasses and setting them down before she heads over to the fridge. They’re chocolate chip, his favorite, and she’s sprinkled little pink hearts over the top of the cookies and around the plate. Archie raises his brow up at her, a laugh in his throat. “So...Valentine’s cookies?”

Betty shrugs, pouring some milk into one of the glasses, then the other. “I thought you’d like something sweet,” her voice is soft, almost embarrassed. “Since you were spending the day on your own, I,” she shrugs. “I also thought maybe...maybe I could keep you company?”

Archie raises his brow at her. “What about Jughead?”

Betty rolls her eyes, grabbing one of the cookies off the plate. “I’ll see him later,” she waves her hand. “We’re having dinner at Stonewall.” Archie nods, and takes the glass of milk Betty’s holding out for him. “Besides, you were my first valentine...I couldn’t just let you spend your  _ whole  _ day in misery.”

Archie rolls his eyes, ignoring the little tug he feels in his chest, ignoring the fact that Betty would still call him that so casually after all this time. “Nice of you,” he chuckles, his mouth full. He swallows and downs some of the milk in his glass, setting it down and grinning at her when he knows he has a full milk mustache. “Want to watch a movie? Maybe something bloody.”

–

He meets her at the Wyrm after work, stuffing his Riverdale RROTC sweatshirt into his duffel bag as he walks down the stairs, stringing his fingers through his hair as he stands at the entryway and looks for her. She’s sitting on a barstool, her finger dipped into her gin and tonic, her hair falling into her face. 

He bites on the inside of his cheek so he won’t lick his lips. 

They’ve been doing this for a while – the whole friends with benefits  _ (best  _ friends with benefits, she calls it) thing, and he can’t really help that he wants more. That his throat goes tight when he sees her, basically anywhere. That his heart beats harder when she notices him, when she smiles, when she laughs. It’s stupid, he thinks, because of course he feels this way about  _ Betty,  _ he’s not sure how he’d ever thought any differently. 

She looks up and over her shoulder, grinning when she sees him, waving him over. He smiles back, zipping up his duffel bag as he walks and setting it down on the ground next to his barstool. “Hi,” she laughs, leaning up and pressing a kiss to his cheek. It’s a lot closer to his mouth than either of them decide to acknowledge. 

“Hey, you,” he chuckles, wrapping his arm loosely around her waist. He slides onto his own barstool and orders himself a beer, then looks over at her. “How were your classes?”

Betty frowns. “Those kids are vultures,” she shakes her head. “They asked me about my hot date tonight, though.”

“Oh,” Archie raises his brow. “You told them you had a date?”

Betty snorts, shaking her head. “No, I told them I had  _ plans, _ which...I’ll admit, probably wasn’t the best thought I’ve ever had.” Archie snorts, grabbing his beer from the bartender and taking a long pull. 

“Yeah, maybe not your most shining moment, Betts.” He slides his free hand over her bare knee, brushing his thumb over her skin. “S’fine, though, they’ll forget by Monday, m’sure.”

Betty sighs, taking a sip of her drink and then smiling over at him. “How’d practice go?” 

Archie shrugs. “Not worth talking about,” he laughs, sliding in a little closer to her. “I made ‘em sweat, that’s all.”

“You’re good at that,” Betty smirks, and he watches as her eyes trail over his face, down his neck as he swallows. “At making people sweat, I mean.”

“Ah,” Archie lets out a low laugh. “You think so?”

Betty nods, tapping her fingers absently over her glass. He’s about to tell her, right now – that he wants more than this whole friends with benefits thing they’ve got going on, that he’s pretty sure he’s in love with her – but she reaches over and puts her hand on his arm, brushing her thumb along the crook of his elbow. “I know so,” she grins. “I plan to verify, later on.”

“Oh, do you?” He shakes his head. “I thought Valentine’s Day was for hacks, Betts...isn’t that what you said, oh…,” he casts his eyes upwards, “two days ago?”

Betty licks her lips, her eyes on his mouth from what he can gather. “That was before I went lingerie shopping, Arch.” She squeezes his arm lightly. “Besides, I had to buy  _ something  _ for my Valentine, since I knew you were paying for the drinks.”

Archie grins, swallowing. He slides his hand a little higher up her leg, his fingers ghosting her thigh. He’s fairly certain that regardless of whatever she’s wearing under this outfit, this Valentine’s Day is going to change things for them big time.

–

Archie walks through the front door with a bouquet of pink peonies tucked under his arm, a bottle of wine in a brown paper bag in his fist. He can smell something burning, which should probably be alarming, but his fiancée isn’t much for cooking...so, he’s not necessarily surprised. 

“Fuck,” he hears a shout from the kitchen, followed by a loud crash.  _ “Fuck,” _ he laughs to himself, setting both the flowers and the wine down on the table in their entry way and hurrying into their small, open kitchen where billows of smoke are tearing out of the oven. Betty’s fanning the open oven door with a baking sheet, muttering under her breath and coughing, her hair pinned back off her face. 

“Trying to kill me for Valentine’s day, babe?” 

Betty whips her head around, a frown on her lips. She sighs, then continues fanning at the oven, “I was making  _ bread,  _ I thought that was harmless enough.” 

Archie laughs, walking over to the far wall and pushing the window open before grabbing another baking sheet off the counter, waving the smoke in the direction of the open window. He catches sight of a blackened loaf of misshapen bread sitting in the oven and feels his face soften, looking over at Betty as she pouts at the mess. She’s wearing a sleek red dress, her makeup soft, her engagement ring glinting in the light every time she waves the baking sheet. “I’m sure it wasn’t your fault,” he says, a laugh in his throat. Betty glares at him, rolling her eyes. 

“It  _ wasn’t,  _ Arch,” she sighs. She sets the baking sheet down and moves around the counter, crossing her arms over her chest and leaning against the kitchen island. “It really wasn’t.”

Archie gets the smoke under control and makes sure the oven is off before he kicks it shut and turns around to face her. “I know it wasn’t,” he smiles, trying to keep the laughter out of his voice. Betty scowls at him and he makes his way over to her, sliding his hands over her waist, pressing his fingers against her hips. “I swear,” he mumbles, leaning his face against her neck. His lips brush over her pulse as he murmurs, “I know.”

“You better know,” she grumbles, and he feels her slip her arms around his neck. “If you want to find out what I have under this dress.”

“Sounds like a threat,” he chuckles, the sound growing to a full-blown laugh when he feels her nod. 

Valentine’s is kind of their thing, now. They’d spent the past twenty or so years circling each other as platonic valentines, until a few years ago when he’d finally worked up the courage to tell her how he really felt...to ask her to be his  _ actual  _ valentine – and that’s all it had really taken, to be honest. They’d spent the last few Valentine’s making up for lost time. 

Now, Betty lifts her face and smirks up at him, raising her brows. “You don’t think it’s a threat, Arch?”

Archie hums, pressing his lips together. “I think,” he leans down, brushing his lips against hers. “I think you love me too much to threaten me on _Valentine’s,_ Betts. You know how special it is.”

Betty nods, humming softly. “Ah,” she taps her fingers lightly against the back of his neck. He can feel the metal of her engagement ring against her skin. “That’s true...you know, it is  _ really _ special…being a valentine.” Archie raises his brows at her, trying not to smile at the words he can hear bouncing around in his brain from their shared childhood. “It’s basically just telling the whole world that you  _ love  _ them, you know?”

“I’ve heard that somewhere,” he grins, leaning down and kissing her softly. “You telling the whole world you love me, Betty?”

Betty tightens her arms around him and sighs, tipping her head back before she leans up and kisses him. She nods into the kiss, but she didn’t need to – he’s known the answer to that question for years. 

It’s the same answer he’d give, if she asked.

**Author's Note:**

> you can follow me on [twitter](https://twitter.com/bettycooopers) or [tumblr](https://bettycooopers.tumblr.com) if you feel like watching me break down in real time!


End file.
